1. Field of Invention
The present disclosure relates to a strength reinforcement device for a front shock absorber of a vehicle, and more particularly, to a strength reinforcement device for a front shock absorber of a vehicle, which is integrally connected to a top end portion of the front shock absorber to allow a sufficient supporting force for a load transferred to the front shock absorber.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in a portion forming a boundary between an engine room and a front windshield glass, which is also a boundary between the engine room and a driver's seat, are provided a cowl top panel and a cowl inner lower panel. The cowl inner lower pattern has a chamber structure having a concave-groove cross-section, such that it is used as a space for installing a wiper assembly and also a space for draining rainwater and installing an air inlet of an air conditioning system.
As shown in FIG. 6, when a cowl top panel 10, which contacts a bottom end of a windshield glass, is disposed on a top portion, a cowl inner lower panel 12 is disposed under the cowl top panel 10, and shock absorber supporting panels 14 with which top ends of front shock absorbers 16 are engaged are disposed in immediately front portions from both side end portions of the cowl inner lower panel 12.
In driving of a vehicle, the front shock absorber is affected by a load exerted up and down, a load exerted to the right and to the left in turning, and a load exerted forward and backward in start and stop, and such loads are transferred to a vehicle body connected to the shock absorber and thus sensitively influence comfortableness a passenger feels in driving, on-center feel in driving, and handling performance.
Therefore, comfortableness and handling performance may be determined according to a connection structure between the shock absorber supporting panel with which the top end of the front shock absorber is engaged and its peripheral body panel.
To this end, conventionally, as shown in FIG. 6, the left and right shock absorber supporting panels 14 are integrally connected via the cowl inner lower panel 12 and a reinforce cowl inner lower panel 18 (‘reinforce panel’ for short).
That is, rear end portions of the left and right shock absorber supporting panels 14 are welded with front end flanges 12a of the both side end portions of the cowl inner lower panel 12 and inner end portions of the left and right shock absorber supporting panel 14 are welded with flanges 18a of both side end portions of the reinforce panel 18, such that the left and right shock absorber supporting panels 14 are integrally connected via the cowl inner lower panel 12 and the reinforce panel 18.
More specifically, the reinforce panel 18 closely contacts the surface of the cowl inner lower panel 12 and both side ends thereof are processed as the flanges 18a, such that the flanges 18a of the reinforce panel 18 are simply welded to top end edge portions of the shock absorber supporting panels 14 in closely contact manner, and thus the left and right shock absorber supporting panels 14 are integrally connected by the reinforce panel 18.
As such, since the left and right shock absorber supporting panels 14 are integrally connected and supported by the reinforce panel 18, the shock absorber supporting panels 14 may be maintained firmly without being deformed by loads exerted in various directions to the shock absorber.
However, as the cowl inner lower panel and the reinforce panel are connected merely by the flanges to the shock absorber supporting panels engaged with the front shock absorbers, such a structure is inefficient to a twisting load. In addition, there is no separate connection member in a front portion of the shock absorber supporting panel, such that the structure is not favorable to a bending phenomenon occurring due to forward and backward loads and left and right loads generated during driving.
In other words, since only the flanges of the cowl inner lower panel and the flanges of the reinforce panel are coupled, by being welded, to the shock absorber supporting panels engaged with the top ends of the front shock absorbers in a closely contact manner, a sufficient supporting force cannot be provided for up and down loads from both wheels during driving, left and right loads in turning, forward and backward loads in start and stop, and so forth.
As such, since the shock absorber supporting panel is directly affected by various loads exerted to the shock absorber, a structure in which the left and right shock absorber supporting panels are connected to each other merely by the flanges of the cowl inner lower panel and the flanges of the reinforce panel has weak strength, such that a load transferred to the shock absorber supporting panel cannot be easily distributed. As a result, the shock absorber supporting panel is deformed, the driver's comfortableness and on-center feel are poor, degrading handling stability.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.